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Google's 'Net-centric Chrome OS platform challenges conventional notions about what constitutes an operating system. It puts the cloud front and center, eschewing the familiar desktop paradigm and native applications in favor of a browser-only environment. It's an audacious and intriguing experiment, but it's not clear yet if it will resonate with a mainstream audience.

To get a feel for how Google's new platform works in the field, we spent a few days testing the Cr-48, an experimental laptop prototype that runs an early version of Chrome OS. Although the software is still under development and not yet mature enough to support an authoritative conclusion about the platform's potential, we have assembled some observations based on our experiences.

Our testing of the prototype so far has left us impressed, but wanting more functionality. The Cr-48 performs relatively well and meets basic requirements for Web surfing, gaming, and personal productivity, but falls short for more intensive tasks. Google is actively working to correct some of the limitations and appears to be making good progress on addressing common needs in other areas like multimedia, but there are still some gaps that constrain the scope of the platform's efficacy compared to the conventional netbook experience.

Whether the gaps are a major impediment or a minor inconvenience will depend largely on the user's workload. At launch, the audience will be somewhat limited and consumer expectations will have to be set very carefully. As broader support for emerging standards makes the Web a richer application platform and Google advances other critically important technologies like Native Client (NaCl) and Chrome's extension API, the appeal of Chrome OS could expand.

Hardware

The Cr-48 is an unbranded prototype that is not available to regular consumers. Google commissioned Taiwanese original design manufacturer (ODM) Inventec to produce approximately 60,000 units specifically for participants of the Chrome OS pilot program. Google hopes that the recipients of the Cr-48 prototypes will supply feedback to help guide further refinement leading up to the official Chrome OS launch next year.

A study in black

It's not really clear yet if the Cr-48 is intended to be the basis for a Chrome OS hardware reference design or if it's just a configuration that happened to be convenient for the prototypes. Google says that individual OEMs will choose their own designs and hardware configurations. I suspect that the first commercially available Chrome OS devices will be a few inches smaller than the 12-inch Cr-48 and will look more like conventional netbooks. As we discuss the Cr-48 hardware, it's important to remember that it's a prototype and that hardware that eventually reaches consumers might not resemble it at all.

The laptop's undifferentiated black exterior and total lack of branding and other adornments contribute to a gracefully understated design. Most of the surface has a smooth matte finish with a slightly rubberized texture. One of my friends aptly commented that it looks like the fake laptops that you see as props in furniture showrooms. I think that it's quite fetching compared to average laptop designs, but opinions seem to differ among members of the Ars staff.

The Cr-48 comes with a built-in 3G modem that is tied to Verizon's network. We also found what looked like a SIM card slot in the battery compartment, but we aren't sure if it's operational. We had no trouble getting the Verizon connectivity to work during our tests. To set it up, we had to go through an initial registration process at the Verizon website and input a credit card number. The user gets 100MB per month for free, and can choose to pay for additional service as needed.

You can click the network status icon in the status area to toggle 3G and other relevant connectivity options. Switching to 3G connectivity is easy and proved to be a convenient option at the coffee shop.

The matte 12-inch screen renders at 1280x800. We aren't particularly impressed with the quality of the display, which seems a bit cheap by our standards, but it is roughly comparable with what you typically get in budget netbooks. Battery life is relatively decent, lasting a good six hours of continuous use with the network enabled during our tests.

The full-sized keyboard has chiclet-style keys with a fair bit of spacing between them. It's as smooth as butter and very comfortable for typing—much better than the average netbook keyboard. It uses a standard layout for the alphanumeric keys, but there are some minor differences for the meta keys and the function keys. The caps lock key has been replaced with a "search" button that opens a new browser tab. Google has also omitted the "Windows" key that typically resides between ctrl and alt. The top row of the keyboard has keys for switching between browser windows, toggling full screen mode, adjusting the screen brightness, and other similar functions.

The Cr-48 keyboard—with no caps lock key

The touchpad is a single surface that activates a click when it is pushed down. It supports basic two-finger multitouch gestures, such as swiping two fingers to scroll and pressing down with two fingers to right-click. It is generously sized and feels sturdy, but the multitouch support is terrible. You have to have your fingers spaced apart just right for any of the two-finger gestures to work. Scrolling is finicky and unpredictable. Performing a right-click is an exercise in frustration. It's just not a good experience.

I suspect that the touchpad woes are at least partly a software issue. The touchpad hardware is made by Synaptic, and support for the recent Synaptic multitouch pads on Linux is generally shoddy. I've encountered similar issues with Ubuntu on my HP portable.

On the sides of the device, you will find a single USB port, a headphone jack, a VGA output, an SD card slot, and the power adapter slot. The battery compartment on the bottom is secured with a single latch. The battery fits entirely within the case's profile and doesn't protrude from the back.

It's unclear if the jailbreak switch will be included in regular commercially available Chrome OS systems or if it is exclusively a feature of the developer-centric Cr-48.

If the Android front is any indication, it is virtually guaranteed to not be available. I'm surprised they don't offer that one last switch to grant the user full access, but I figure this will be enough to placate most people and give ammunition to the "go buy something else" crowd.

Android will take over tablets to compete with the iPad and we will never hear about ChromeOS again in 1 year. More or less my prediction.

It solves a problem that isn't very problematic for a usergroup that's almost inexistent. A bigger usergroup that might have some use for it is currently taken over by tablets which will be dominated by iOS and Android.

What do people use their Computers for? If its just internet email and chatting they are perfectly targeted by the new tablet OSses which are as small, stable, updatable and secure as ChromeOS and have the additional advantage of form factor, comfort and coolness factor.

The other big usage is as media server for their phones, ipods, tvs etc. to save and organize pictures and videos and music. Can you even do that with that thing? 10Gb of local storage? How idiotic is that?

And then there are the people who want to do more with their computer which will not like being crippled like that anyway.

So basically this is a product by engineers esp. web developers who have a big big hammer and try to find a nail. Its definitely not customer driven. The only people who think its cool are other engineers who admire the technical design. The whole user interface and willful limitations reek of fail. Huge fail. If this ever sees a real product release three people will buy it. And I normally love google they are a great company but this will be killed by their own inhouse competition.

Google needs to seriously refocus the company. They're heading in the direction of Microsoft on the web, a bunch of products that would be so much better if they spent more time working together to integrate them. Why exactly would Google work on two OSes. This should be a front to Android, not a separate product.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

Android will take over tablets to compete with the iPad and we will never hear about ChromeOS again in 1 year. More or less my prediction.

It solves a problem that isn't very problematic for a usergroup that's almost inexistent. A bigger usergroup that might have some use for it is currently taken over by tablets which will be dominated by iOS and Android.

I don't know - I kind of like the idea of simple, no-nonsense laptop for browsing. A faster iPad with keyboard and a lower price tag - that definitely appeals to me.

We'll see; but 90% of my non-work computer use is browsing+mailing+etc - typically not easily done on a touchscreen keyboard, and then there's the fact that something foldable sits on your lap more easily.

Pricing will be important;however. A netbook without MS-tax should be very cheap - let's hope it is.

One of the things Google promised when Chrome OS was announced was that users wouldn't be locked out of their machines should they want to alter the system, the jailbreak switch MOSTLY fulfills that purpose, but if they don't include something similar on shipping machines its going to turn into another iPhone situation where people have to find their own way in.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

1. There is nothing stopping you, but it's up to you (or someone else) to figure out how to do it.2. Of course you can't -- unless you install your own OS, again figure out how to do it yourself.

Prediction: ChromeOS will be killed next year (or “merged” with Android)

Considering his former employer just launched the Chrome OS pilot program last week, the comment may sting a little over at Mountain View, although it should be noted Buchheit is hardly the only one predicting that Google’s Linux-based operating system will go the way of the Wave soon enough.

Pricing will be important;however. A netbook without MS-tax should be very cheap - let's hope it is.

Win7 Starter Edition costs next to nothing to put on a computer. Don't expect a huge (or even extant at all) price differential between Windows netbooks and ChromeOS netbooks. They are already selling netbooks with very, very thin margins.

Why do you have to involve the squirrels in this? If you want cloud computing, you want an open net. Otherwise as soon as anything becomes popular, big lazy telco's will want their cut for doing nothing.

I already pay my ISP for my connecting bandwidth and the data I use, they already pay their uplink for their connection bandwidth and data they use, the uplink already pays the "national carrier" for the connection bandwidth and data they use, google's uplink already pays the "national carrier" for the connection bandwidth and data they use, and google already pays their uplink for the connection bandwidth and data they use.

The national carriers are already getting paid twice for the connection bandwidth and data usage over "their pipes", and we're also talking 95th percentile charges for these connections (they avg it out, then take the 95th and charge you for that instead of the average).

What possibly do they need to take more for other than #1 for their stock holders, #2 those in charge with the quarter to half a million dollar salaries fail at their jobs and aren't worth it.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

Probably, but that's kind of beside the point since Google sent these out for free so people can test ChromeOS. The interesting thing is the OS, not the generic netbook hardware. If you want to run a full Linux system, you should just go out and buy a Linux netbook.

I don't see how this will become mainstream without serious innovation in handling and displaying a large quantity of tabs. I'd even go for something incredibly simple like the option to make the tab bar vertical on a widescreen monitor. But that's kinda hard when the tab bar and title bar are one and the same.

I don't see how this will become mainstream without serious innovation in handling and displaying a large quantity of tabs. I'd even go for something incredibly simple like the option to make the tab bar vertical on a widescreen monitor. But that's kinda hard when the tab bar and title bar are one and the same.

I don't see how this will become mainstream without serious innovation in handling and displaying a large quantity of tabs. I'd even go for something incredibly simple like the option to make the tab bar vertical on a widescreen monitor. But that's kinda hard when the tab bar and title bar are one and the same.

There is an option in chrome:///flags for enabling the vertical tab bar, but it sort of breaks the notification area. I'm hoping that they can fix that up for the official release.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

1. There is nothing stopping you, but it's up to you (or someone else) to figure out how to do it.2. Of course you can't -- unless you install your own OS, again figure out how to do it yourself.

So, I cannot even change browsers. This makes ChromeOS even more closed than IOS then. At least with IOS I can use Opera Mini...

Hmm, it sounds like the biggest (perhaps only, from my perspective) desirable feature in ChromeOS is the security, and the biggest drawbacks are the inability to have multiple pages open and the inability to run any other kinds of software. Sounds to me like the perfect place for this is running in a virtual machine under my current OS- then I can run it in multiple windows, I can still run whatever else I want, and browsing remains secure.

I can see wanting to use it like that for all my web browsing, for the security, but I certainly am not going to buy a separate machine just for browsing securely.

I'm curious about how well plugging another monitor in works on this laptop. Does it only stretch the one tab or can two tabs be open (one on each screen) then? I like that they're moving away from the floating windows model but they're going to have to at least allow side by side viewing of documents.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

You can install Ubuntu if you flip the jailbreak switch. As far as I can tell (and I spent about an hour trying) you cannot run Firefox in Chrome OS itself, even if you have root access. If you want to do either of those things, you are better off buying a regular netbook.

Pricing will be important;however. A netbook without MS-tax should be very cheap - let's hope it is.

Win7 Starter Edition costs next to nothing to put on a computer. Don't expect a huge (or even extant at all) price differential between Windows netbooks and ChromeOS netbooks. They are already selling netbooks with very, very thin margins.

Win 7 requires more hardware to give a decent user experience. A little RAM here, a few Mhz there, maybe ARM instead of x86, and you'll get cheaper. Netbooks are already <$300, so it won't be dramatically cheaper but if the same money gets smoother performance and a bigger screen, it will draw the market. If the $299 and the $249 machines are otherwise matched, which will sell?

This could completely replace my netbook. Mine has Vista and takes about 2 minutes to boot, and all I do is run a web browser. I use it to surf, email, take notes, and google docs. When a windows update hits it pegs the CPU and locks the thing up for 10-20 minutes. Shutting down takes way too long, maybe 30 seconds, and I've repeatedly accidentally closed the lid before it's completely shut down, suspending the machine and draining the battery. A netbook that has the browser up in 10 seconds and doesn't have crap running in the background locking things up sounds great to me.

Thanks for the review, I'm considering one of these when they come out. The security features make me want it just so I can use it for online banking and shopping, it'd be nice to have that sense of security.

flyingember wrote:

it's not going to work for me.

Cisco and HP still have web apps that require internet explorer.

Google needs to seriously refocus the company. They're heading in the direction of Microsoft on the web, a bunch of products that would be so much better if they spent more time working together to integrate them. Why exactly would Google work on two OSes. This should be a front to Android, not a separate product.

Would you seriously use a netbook for something that also requires Cisco web apps? Look at the existing netbook market, it's all about light, portable web machines, they don't really do much else. This slots right into that. Now, that the netbook market is a dying market means they might not get the run they intended out of it, but we'll have to wait and see. This removes a lot of the things that makes Windows bad on a netbook, so all the power to them.

But it seems pretty on target to me, get people on the web so they can see advertising and make Google money. Their focus is spot on to being profitable, regardless of how many products they make, they all have that same goal at heart.

Slapping this on top of Android is probably a very viable future option too, but right now I'm glad they didn't. The back end doesn't really matter, it just needs to be a basic linux stack of some sort, that could be Android. But right now Android versioning is a pain, having the same problem with laptops shipping with different versions of Android would suck, plus the feature set would be aimed at phones, not these netbooks, creating further difficulties. And it would give space for vendors to dump whatever they want in their too, more crapware isn't really what I want (although it's likely to make it unpopular with vendors). Plus it would limit the OS to ARM, which is developing nicely but I wouldn't throw it in a laptop yet. There's nothing there that can match atom on price and power.

1. Can other Linux OS be installed, like Ubuntu?2. Can I get rid of Chrome and replaced with alternatives like Mozilla Firefox, or self-compiled Chromium? At least I want a browser without any of the Gooigle tracking mechanisms in the browser.

1. There is nothing stopping you, but it's up to you (or someone else) to figure out how to do it.2. Of course you can't -- unless you install your own OS, again figure out how to do it yourself.

So, I cannot even change browsers. This makes ChromeOS even more closed than IOS then. At least with IOS I can use Opera Mini...

You do realize your statement is just about as insane as saying "Firefox is locked down because I can't run Internet Explorer with it."

You make no sense at all. If you want to run a different browser, don't run ChromeOS, because it is just a bootable browser. If you want to use the same laptop and put something else on it, just flip the god damned jailbreak switch and go nuts.

What about the more nitty gritty OS-level details that are nonetheless important? Are there configuration menus somewhere for some of these things?

- Can you configure networking (e.g. if DHCP is not used, or changing DNS settings, or even IPv6 support)?- Does it support connecting to a VPN? [EDIT: Not important for the target user likely, but still interested to know if it will be possible]- Can it print a document/webpage, and how do you configure/choose the printer?- Given the read-only filesystem, does it have a mechanism for OS and browser updates when (not if) vulnerabilities are found?- Does it allow for driver updates for future improvements (e.g. WPA2 support was added to many older 802.11 cards using drivers), and how would that work?

I'm curious about how well plugging another monitor in works on this laptop.

Me too. As someone who's currently sitting at a machine with two monitors, one with a document that I'm drafting, and one with the source material I'm taking data from, I would hope that you could find some way to have two tabs visible at the same time. For someone that likes to have multiple items visible at the same time, the idea of only having a single tab visible at once seems very limiting.

I agree with thekaj, I think almost every commenter on here is missing the point. This kind of system would be perfect for someone like my sister-in-law. She only uses a computer to get on the internet, she doesn't create documents, edit photos, change browsers, or even know what the Terminal, or command line is. This is not a computer for power users, this is a computer for someone like her. Web access for her, no worries about updates or virus scans for me.

I feel bad for anyone who gets one of these things expecting it to do what your standard laptop/netbook would do. Sort of like when Walmart started selling cheaper PCs because they came with Linux instead of Windows, and people just bought them based on price, and then figured out later what had happened.

This thing might be fine for a very small niche market, but I just can't imagine the masses to flock to this thing. Windows and OSX are still going to rule this space for the time being.

I just do not see any point in this at all. As most Linux fan boys are constantly saying it doesn't get viruses so if chrome OS' big feature is security then it's definitely in trouble.

From what the article says it currently seems to offer nothing but limits everything you do. Where I live there is no 3G signal at all and the signal doesn't get much better for at least 60 odd miles. So this all in the cloud work just won't fly. Maybe 3G is better in the US or maybe there are a lot more free wireless hot spots.

Android will take over tablets to compete with the iPad and we will never hear about ChromeOS again in 1 year. More or less my prediction.

I agree but for different reasons. More likely than not the technology of Chrome OS will be incorporated into Android and Chrome OS itself will disappear. It'll be a competitive advantage for Android for that very small niche that were excited about Chrome OS.